5 underrated Hermione moments that shouldn't be skipped in the HBO adaptation

I've been listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks to make my desk job less tedious recently and it seems that every chapter adds something to my list of things I want from HBO. I will be sad if we don't get a vision of Dobby wearing every hat Hermione has ever knitted or Hagrid knitting a gigantic yellow something on the London Underground. I especially want to see things like the wizard wearing a nightgown to the Quidditch World Cup or the patients in the waiting room at St. Mungo's. More often, though, I find myself cataloguing dialogue or plot that defined my love for a character. Here are my votes for five moments that would make the Hermione character true to the books.

1. "But Harry - what if You-Know-Who's with him?" (Year 1)

Just before Harry meets "The Man With Two Faces"in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, he reaches a literal turning point. Hermione has solved Snape's riddle and knows how to avoid danger. Harry asks her to help Ron and get help from Dumbledore.

The movie highlights her very quotable "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things" moment, but her first concern isn't about what she needs to go back to, but what is ahead for Harry. She can only tell him to "be careful" and "take care before she trusts his advice. Her decision to follow his instincts was a great moment of bravery.

2. "I give up! I'm leaving!" (Year 3)

It's almost impossible to think of Hermione abandoning her studies under any circumstances, but we see her breaking point in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. "The Quidditch Final" starts with Hermione slap Malfoy "with all the strength she could muster." She then falls asleep instead of coming to Charms class and when she is sneered and and belittled for not being a believer in Divination, she finally stands up against the ridiculous expectations of the professor. "Getting up and cramming Unfogging the Future into her bag," she quits the wooly subject of Divination on the spot.

An article on Setting Boundaries on WebMD and revieweed by Smitha Bhandari says that "Establishing boundaries is good for you and the people around you..[and[ healthy boundaries can also help you...enhance your mental health and emotional well-being." It encourages people looking for better mental health to "communicate your thoughts" and "follow through on what you say." Hermione definitely did both of those things.

3. "Want to go for a walk?" (Year 4)

One of my favorite moments for Hermione has nothing to do with impressive spellwork or her bravery in the face of danger. It's when she treats Harry like a distressed brother. Just after the selection of the four Triwizard Tournament champions, Harry rows with Ron. He's in such a bad mood the next morning that he wants to "force Ron to believe him" and ignores everyone who tries to reach out to him. But then he comes face-to-face with Hermione and she's not like "the rest of the Gryffindors, all treating him like some sort of hero."

Hermione doesn't want anything from him and isn't trying to flatter or praise him. She realized he wasn't at breakfast and brought him toast so they could take a walk and talk out what was bothering him. She doesn't take either friend's side and does a pretty great job of seeing what might hurt each person's feelings, but she is the one to tell Harry to reach out for hep to Sirius. In the crisis of Harry being endangered yet again, she looks for a way to help first and foremost.

4. "Don't you think you've got a bit of a - a - saving-people-thing?" (Year 5)

The first thing I knew about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was that "Sirius is dead and if Harry had just listened to Snape, it wouldn't have happened!" Technically, the friend who blurted all of this out to me a month before I could read it wasn't right. If Harry had listened to Hermione, he wouldn't have gone to the Ministry of Magic and Sirius would not have lost his life in the battle there.

Harry and his friends are frequently at emotional odds in the fifth book. He shows a lot of classic signs of post-traumatic stress and struggles both to cope with the new experiences and to act in ways that will let others help him. When he is given a vision of his godfather being threatened, he is ready to run to the rescue again, but Hermione has the courage to stop him in his heroic tracks. Her pleas for him to consider alternatives mostly go unheeded and Harry angrily responds to her describing his "saving-people-thing," but she tried very hard to keep him safe. It is something that Hermione does repeatedly throughout the books and I love her for this instance of it.

5. "We've had time, haven't we?"

There is still one more book to go when Hermione says it, but it sums up every moment of solidarity between Harry, Ron and Hermione. As they leave Dumbledore's funeral and Harry announces that he's going to leave Hogwarts to find the Horcruxes, Hermione asks about his plans. He lays out vague plans to go to Godric's Hollow and very specific intentions to track down the pieces of the Dark Lord's soul. Ron is first to respond saying "We'll be there,, Harry...and then we'll go with you wherever you're going."

Hermione's response to Harry refusing this offer is a poignant one:

"You said to us once before...that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?"

Hermione granger

This leads to Harry's final thoughts of the book, that "in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself...he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione."

I'm sure there are many other options I could have chosen. Feel free to reread and remember what you would have placed on this list.